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Listed under:  Society  >  Culture  >  Regional culture  >  Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples  >  Aboriginal peoples
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Corroboree, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.7 cm watercolour showing Indigenous Australian men at a moonlit, night-time corroboree around a central fire in a bush clearing. Five men are dancing in a line on one side of the fire, while another six men stand on the other side, all painted with white ochre ceremonial markings on their legs, arms ...

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Indigenous Australians at the Hunter River, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.8 cm watercolour of 12 people from the Awabakal language group with their dogs beside the Hunter River in New South Wales. It is a cloudy night but the moon has broken through and is reflected on the water. The people are gathered around campfires, possibly in two separate family groups, each with ...

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Indigenous Australian men with weapons, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.8 cm watercolour of ten men carrying spears, spear throwers and shields as they walk along a dirt path. Some have clubs tucked into loincloths. Another group of five men can be seen further down the grassed hill.

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Indigenous Australians defending their land, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm watercolour showing about 40 Indigenous Australian people attacking a rowboat carrying five colonists. Most of the warriors are on a steep, rocky headland and those close to the water have spears raised. Two appear to be picking up stones while those further up the cliff watch on. About ten Indigenous ...

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Indigenous Australians feasting on a beached whale, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.7 cm x 27.9 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts Indigenous Australian people on the New South Wales coast near the mouth of the Hunter River at Nobby's Head. There is a sailing ship on the horizon and nine people are on the beach, some looking on while two kneel beside ...

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Indigenous Australians using fire to hunt kangaroos, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.5 cm x 27.8 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts Indigenous Australians using fire to flush out kangaroos in order to hunt them. One man is ready to throw a spear using a woomera (spear thrower) and another has his arm raised to throw a boomerang. In the background, ...

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Indigenous Australian family sheltering in a cave, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 17.7 cm x 27.7 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It depicts an Indigenous Australian family sheltering from a storm in the entrance of a cave in New South Wales. A man holds a fish and a firebrand and a woman sits on a rock nursing a baby. A third adult squats before a fire, apparently ...

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Indigenous Australian climbing a tree, c1817

This is a watercolour, measuring 27.8 cm x 17.7 cm, created by Joseph Lycett in about 1817. It features an Indigenous Australian man about 2 m up the trunk of a eucalypt tree, with his feet and one hand in notches on the trunk. He is holding a small axe in the other hand, ready to cut another notch, apparently being directed ...

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Portrait of an Indigenous Australian man, c1790

This is a portrait of an Indigenous Australian man from the Port Jackson (Sydney) area of New South Wales, created in about 1790 by an unknown artist. The man is shown from the waist up, standing with his back to the viewer and his head turned to the right-hand side. The man's facial features are exaggerated and his back ...

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Indigenous Australian man with white body paint, c1790

This is a portrait of an Indigenous Australian man from the Port Jackson (Sydney) area of New South Wales, created in about 1790 by an unknown artist. He is depicted from the waist up, with white paint on his face, arms and chest. The text 'When angry and (as I suppose) intends to fight at a future period' is written below ...

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Bennelong in European clothing, 1798

This is an engraving made by James Neagle in England in 1798. It features an oval portrait of Bennelong wearing a ruffled shirt, waistcoat and frockcoat. A number of Indigenous Australian weapons are depicted in a formal arrangement behind the portrait; these include two shields, a woomera (spear thrower), a hafted axe ...

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Indigenous Tasmanian woman, Arra-Maida, 1802

This is a black-and-white print of a drawing made by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit on Bruny Island, off south-east Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), on 31 January 1802. It is a portrait of a young woman, Arra-Maida. She has short, woolly hair and is wearing an animal-skin garment that hangs over one shoulder, but ...

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Indigenous Australian man, Bedgi-bedgi (Bidgee-bidgee), 1802

This is a colour print of a half-figure portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a man named as Bedgi-bedgi (also known as Bidgee-bidgee), said to be of the Gwea-gal tribe. He has patterned scarification on his arms, chest and abdomen, ...

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Indigenous Australian man, Gnoung-a Gnoung-a ('Collins'), 1802

This is a colour print of a portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit somewhere near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a young Indigenous Australian man known as Gnoung-a Gnoung-a, and also as 'Collins'. He has short, curly hair and a light beard. His red headband is possibly ...

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Indigenous Australian man, Ourou-mare ('Bulldog'), 1802

This is a colour print of a half-figure portrait drawn by the French artist Nicolas-Martin Petit somewhere near Port Jackson (Sydney), between 20 June and 17 November 1802. It shows a man named as Ourou-mare, said to be of the Gwea-gal tribe, and known to the British settlers as 'Bulldog'. He has short, curly hair and a ...

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Indigenous Australian man warding off spears, c1817

This is a 17.7 cm x 27.7 cm watercolour showing an Indigenous Australian man holding a shield in front of himself, with fallen spears at his feet, as he faces a group of 14 men. Some are holding spears, apparently watching and waiting, while one is about to throw his spear at the man with the shield. Another group of 11 ...

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'Hut door', 1850s

This is a circular pencil drawing on coloured scraper board, measuring 22.7 cm in diameter. It was drawn in the 1850s by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80). It depicts a European family of mother, father and small daughter interacting with an elderly Indigenous Australian man and two Indigenous children in front of the door of ...

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A proclamation to Indigenous Australians, 1829

This is a hand-coloured lithograph made in 1886, measuring 42.3 cm x 25 cm, based on an original timber panel made at the request of Governor George Arthur (1784-1854) in 1829. It depicts a comic-style narrative in four strips of drawings. Intended to be read from bottom to top, the drawings show: a British man shooting ...

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'John Batman's famous treaty with the blacks', c1914

This is a black-and-white engraving, measuring 40.4 cm x 57 cm, made by George Rossi Ashton (1851-1942) in about 1914. It depicts John Batman (1801-39) and an elderly Indigenous Australian man leaning over what is probably a treaty document on the decayed trunk of a large fallen tree. They are surrounded by 16 men, many ...

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Simon, Indigenous Australian from Victoria, c1858

This is a hand-coloured photographic print of an Indigenous Australian from Victoria, taken in about 1858. Measuring 24 cm x 19 cm, it is entitled 'SIMON. An Australian Aborigine of the Yarra Yarra tribe which opposed the landing of Batman 1835'. The man is pictured with a spear in one hand and a wooden club in the other. ...